Category: Crypto Art

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DC Comics Set to Drop Free NFTs at FanDome Online Event

American publisher DC Comics has officially dipped its toe into the non-fungible token (NFT) space along with Marvel and other major names in the entertainment industry.

The major competitor to Marvel has officially stepped into the blockchain space with the drop of its first collection of NFTs on October 16. The DC FanDome 2021 streaming event will be the key to the free drop for those registering for the event from October 5.

According to the announcement, DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee “hand-selected” the artwork used for each collectible. Featuring superheroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and more, the premier drop offers fans the opportunity to collect one of three covers for each character in three levels of rarity.

Registrants will also have the ability to unlock a second, free NFT by sharing the event on social media.

DC FanDome NFT drop.

Fans Want More Access and a Deeper Connection

As more major names in the entertainment industry join the blockchain revolution, it is becoming apparent that fans want more access and a deeper connection to their favourite publishers and brands.

This drop pays homage to our 87-year history while visualising a future in which NFTs play a foundational role in novel ways of interacting with DC content and unlocking new experiences.

Jim Lee, DC publisher and chief creative officer

DC’s FanDome 2020 streaming event pulled in a reported 22 million viewers to learn about the brand’s upcoming comic books, movies, TV shows and video games. By adding the NFT experience, the publisher is aiming to draw in even more viewers and spread the word about the stream.

Given the size of the viewer base for last year’s streaming event, DC suggests that this will very likely be “one of the largest NFT drops ever”, according to Palm NFT.

This news comes one month after Marvel also dropped its first NFT collection on VeVe NFT marketplace.

DC Using Palm NFT Marketplace

DC has partnered with Palm NFT to create its new line of NFTs for the entertainment company that helped shape today’s fan culture. By using sustainable NFT initiatives, DC says it is trying to redefine the industry by giving fans unprecedented access, and the ability to own and be a part of the future of DC digital collectibles.

https://twitter.com/PalmNft/status/1443263377573298193

It’s immensely rewarding to work with a partner like DC who understands that blockchain is more than a technology – it’s a sustainable storytelling tool that can reshape the relationship between creators and fans.

Dan Heyman, Palm NFT co-founder
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Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Time Magazine NFT Disaster Highlights Problem with Mint Bots

When Time magazine announced a new collection of NFTs offering “unlimited access” to its website throughout 2023, all 4,676 tokens tied to the digital artworks sold out in minutes.

But the sale rush also clogged the Ethereum blockchain, sending gas fees through the roof. So much so that buyers spent almost four times as much on transaction fees as they did on the NFTs themselves.

Dubbed “TIMEPieces”, each token in the collection was priced at .1 ETH, or around US$310. But because of the exorbitant transaction fees, one address paid US$70,000 for just 10 Time NFTs.

Scalping Arrives in the Crypto Space

In a mirror image of what happens when highly sought-after concert tickets are snapped up by automated “bots” and on-sold at inflated prices (otherwise known as “scalping”), the 100 addresses with the most NFTs now own around 24 percent of the total minted supply.

The Ethereum blockchain complicates the issue with what it calls a “priority fee”, an incentive payment to miners to accept their transactions ahead of other users who haven’t put up as much cash. Users who can afford those fees can effectively jump the queue as too many people try to use the network at once, causing it to crash.

Buyers Don’t Know What They’ve Bought

The ultimate irony with the NFTs in Time’s collection is that they simply point to a red Time logo rather than an actual digital artwork, so at the time of writing buyers still didn’t know exactly what they’d bought.

With masterful understatement, TIME Inc president Keith Grossman said that the high fees and inequitable distribution of Time‘s NFTs were probably “not ideal”.

I think we learned a lot about gas in general. There are things that you can’t control … in the gas space. We’re going to make sure that the next time that we do this, everything that we have seen that went wrong, or that didn’t go as we planned, is fixed.

Keith Grossman, president, TIME Inc

In June this year, US television news network CNN showed Time how it’s done by sharing “moments” from its archives as NFTs. CNN used the Flow blockchain, which seems to have handled the demand far more comfortably than Ethereum did in Time‘s case.

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Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Crypto Twitter Dunks on NBA Star’s Cheap NFT Stunt

When Houston Rockets NBA player John Wall announced he was releasing a line of “Baby Baller” non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to raise US$100,000 for charity and the “Ballers community”, sharp-eyed social media users noticed the artwork’s background looked to have been lifted from popular online video game Fortnite.

The design team behind Wall’s NFTs was most likely responsible for the apparent deception after Wall posted a preview of the tokenised artwork on Twitter.

The contentious image, from season 5 of Fortnite by Epic Games, shows a basketball court adjacent to a building near a grove of palm trees. Though Wall’s preview included one of the Baby Ballers on the court spinning a basketball on his finger, many commented that the artwork looked like a lazy attempt to get into the NFT game.

“If you’re putting a 600 ETH [US$1.7 million] valuation on your project, you might want to make sure all your art is unique,” commented Twitter user hotlneblng.

Potential Legal Issues for Using Non-Original Artwork

Others warned of potential legal issues if Wall’s team didn’t secure Epic Games’ permission to use the background image. While the company website allows users to create fan art and other content with “no commercial objective”, most other use cases are prohibited.

Crypto Twitter user Ox_fxnction, an NFT creator and collector, defended the artists behind more reputable digital creations:

Celebs really think they can come into an industry they know nothing about, never interact with the community, then launch a scam project they’ll abandon in three months?

Twitter user Ox_fxnction, an NFT creator and collector

Not the First Time NFT Artwork Has Been Filched

Wall’s NFT creation is not the first instance of appropriating art in the crypto space. Earlier this month, Dan Hindes, creator of an indie game named Wildfire, accused the team behind ‘Epic Hero Battles’ of stealing his artwork. Hindes later reported the creation had been removed, with the team blaming a web developer for the alleged error.

In a related story reported by Crypto News Australia on September 7, the US National Football League (NFL) has banned its teams from selling NFTs or sponsorships to cryptocurrency trading firms, although the ruling does not seem to apply to specific players.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Gaming NFTs Solana

Real Life Meets NFTs in World’s First Virtual Blockchain Claw Machine

A new NFT-based gaming marketplace is coming to Solana as SolPugs becomes the first platform to launch a live virtual claw machine on the blockchain.

We are the first live virtual claw machine on the blockchain- the idea is that we will build a gaming arcade that will be fully integrated with the blockchain and where people can win NFTs.

SolPugs spokesperson

SolPugs, a new blockchain-based company, will bring an NFT marketplace to the Solana chain next month. The company aims to build a fully integrated gaming arcade into the blockchain that will enable users to win NFTs.

SolPugs is the latest to bring NFTs into the real world after Crypto News Australia reported in June that the Australian art scene would present physical NFT exhibitions.

South Australian digital media artist Dave Court became the first in his field to stage such an exhibition, bridging the gap between the real world and NFTs. As the NFT world continues to gain in popularity in Australia, be sure to expect more.

NFT Madness Continues

As the NFT market continues to explode, there are no signs of it slowing down any time soon. In addition to its virtual claw machine, SolPugs will also launch its own NFT.

The company will be offering 5,000 uniquely generated pugs, each with more than 70 distinctive attributes, to be made exclusively for the Solana blockchain and SolPugs’ NFT Gaming Marketplace. Each pug is drawn by hand by an in-house digital artist.

Our system algorithm is designed to generate a unique pug with every minting session. This way, each of our pugs is unique in its own way and you will never find two identical pugs with us. So you will have 5,000 randomly generated Sol Pugs here with 70-plus different attributes to choose from. It’s going to be a unique experience for our users. 

SolPlugs spokesperson

The company also has a whitelist that people can win, either through its whitelist competition or by playing on SolPugs’ virtual claw machine. Pugs come in five different rarities, ranging from Common to Legendary. When a member mints a pug, it will be assigned a rarity.

After the launch, SolPugs will list the pugs on all major NFT marketplaces, including Solanaart.io, Solsea.io, and Digitaleyes.market.

Aiming to bring utility to its pugs, the company will allow members who hold pugs to post their NFTs in their marketplace. People can then win the NFTs, allowing the seller to reap the rewards.

SolPugs Joins Others in the Digital Arcade Game

SolPugs will join Decentraland in hosting a digital arcade claw machine. Decentraland allows users to play the claw machine by paying a set amount of Mana, after which they can win NFTs such as Crypto Kitties and Axies.  

The below video posted on YouTube explains the digital arcade claw on Decentraland:

Atari Hotels recently announced that it intends to accept its own Atari Token (ATRI) for use on its premises. Although it’s still unclear exactly what they will be used for, they may take the form of digital arcade tokens that allow users to play their favourite games in the Atari gaming playgrounds.

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Freddie Mercury NFTs Go On Sale for AIDS Charity

Four non-fungible token (NFT) artworks inspired by Freddie Mercury are to be auctioned off for charity to mark what would have been the late Queen singer’s 75th birthday.

The quartet of works by transatlantic artists Blake Kathryn, Chad Knight (US), Mat Maitland and MBSJQ (UK) will be sold in a timed auction on digital art marketplace SuperRare over 75 hours from September 20, according to the organisers.

Three are portraits of Mercury while the fourth is a dreamlike depiction of a white grand piano with a crown on its stool, surrounded by a pond of swimming goldfish (see video below).

Proceeds will go the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity established by Queen founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor and band manager Jim Beach in the singer’s memory.

The collection is curated by LA-based 6 Agency, whose co-founder Georgio Constantinou commented:

Six was honoured to curate an incredible collection of artists to celebrate the life and impact of Freddie Mercury. After meeting with the Mercury Phoenix Trust, we knew that if Freddie were alive today, he would be excited about the creative potential of the NFT space.

Georgio Constantinou, co-founder, Six Agency

Mercury, who studied graphic art and design before joining Queen in 1970, would have turned 75 on September 5. He died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991.

Mercury Was Fully Qualified When It Came to Art Appreciation

Before joining Queen, Mercury attained a degree in graphic art and design and later became an avid collector of classical and contemporary art and glass works. He was recognised as having what experts considered one of the world’s finest collections of Japanese antique woodblock prints.

The singer left a very simple creative brief to the world on his passing: “You can do whatever you want with my work, just never make me boring.” This brief was given to the four digital artists for each to create an NFT artwork inspired by different aspects of Mercury’s flamboyant persona.

The auction goes live at 0800 hrs on September 20 and the collection can be viewed at www.superrare.com/freddiemercury

As well as raising money for charity, NFTs are also being sold in support of wildlife conservation, as Crypto News Australia reported last month.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

NFT Madness Continues as 101 Bored Ape NFTs Sold for $25 Million

A collection of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible tokens sold for almost US$25 million at auction this week, underlining the insanity of an out-of-control NFT market that topped US$5 billion in overall sales last month.

The exact total of US$24.4 million paid for the BAYC collection translates to an average price of US$241,515 per NFT, smashing Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate of $12-18 million for the lot.

A second lot of 101 Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFTs – digital dogs designed as companions for the apes (see video below) – sold for US$1,835,000.

The digital apes have garnered a runaway cult following among the cryptocurrency community, attracting celebrity collectors such as NBA superstar Steph Curry, the NFL’s Dez Bryant, and musicians including electronic duo the Chainsmokers and rapper/entrepreneur Jermaine Dupri. BAYCs have also been the subject of a feature in The New Yorker magazine.

Single Bored Ape NFT Sells For New Record Price of $2.9 Million

This week’s auction drew largely positive support from the BAYC and broader NFT community on Twitter. Sotheby’s also reported interest from traditional art collectors who are “eager to learn” about the new art category.

We actually have a number of other NFT auctions already in the works and have been developing a long-term NFT strategy since [the first two quarters of 2021].

Michael Bouhanna, co-head of digital art, Sotheby’s

Last month, Crypto News Australia reported that a single BAYC token fetched the equivalent of US$1.29 million on OpenSea. Earlier this week, however, a single Bored Ape NFT sold for a new record US$2.9 million to the creators of The Sandbox, an upcoming Ethereum-based open-world metaverse game.

The Sandbox has foreshadowed a partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club and plans to turn the illustrations into playable 3D avatars that owners can use within the game.

The three Bored Ape NFT drops so far have collectively generated more than US$777 million worth of trading volume, according to data aggregator CryptoSlam.

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NFL Prohibits Teams From Launching NFTs and Crypto Sponsorship

In a move that counters the trend in most other major sports, from football to boxing to cricket, the US National Football League (NFL) has banned its teams from selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or sponsorships to cryptocurrency trading firms.

As reported on sports website The Athletic on September 3, clubs are restricted from selling “advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, other cryptocurrency sales or any other media category as it relates to blockchain [or] digital assets”, according to the NFL guidelines.

However, the policy does allow for sponsorships with companies that mainly provide investment advisory or fund management services related to cryptocurrency, along the lines of Grayscale Investments’ agreement with the New York Giants.

Rule Does Not Appear to Apply to Specific Players

Tom Brady with wife Gisele Bündchen. Source: Us magazine

Individual ventures seem to be exempt from the rule. For example, star quarterback Tom Brady has a joint stake in crypto derivatives exchange FTX with his Brazilian supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen, and he also owns an NFT platform in partnership with sports betting operator DraftKings. Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammate Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski recently sold an NFT collection, while Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes released his own collection of NFTs on MakersPlace in March.

Russell Okung, first NFL player to be part-paid in bitcoin. Source: oldnorthbanter.com

Carolina Panthers lineman Russell Okung announced last December he would be getting half of his US$13 million salary paid in bitcoin. Okung timed his decision well, as the NFL had just capped the league’s salaries at US$180 million. Some suggest Okung is now the highest paid NFL player thanks to his crypto manoeuvre.

The NFL policy places it at odds with other major sports in the NFT space. The NBA has pursued a lucrative partnership with Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot dating back to May last year, and in July Major League Baseball launched its own NFT marketplace with Fanatics-owned Candy Digital.

The Athletic’s report does not disclose any negative feedback from players who have already participated with crypto firms, or whether they have been granted any form of immunity from the new ban.

Possible Reasons for the Ban

It has been suggested that teams are not permitted to sell NFTs because the league is developing its own strategy for sports digital trading cards and art. While other leagues have opened the floodgates for digital assets, the NFL is notoriously cautious with new commercial categories. For example, it trod very cautiously with gambling and alcohol promotions before eventually relaxing its restrictions.

In the case of cryptocurrency, the league currently only allows teams to align with companies that are a step removed from trading.

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Playboy Set to Release NFTs on the ‘Art of Gender and Sexuality’

The latest brand to jump aboard a non-fungible token bandwagon already groaning under the weight of art, music, gaming, beverages and sports collectibles is soft-core porn publishing pioneer Playboy, which is inviting submissions for its first NFT exhibition next month.

In partnership with Sevens Foundation, a non-profit that helps digital artists create and exhibit NFTs, Playboy will choose 50 winning submissions for its inaugural series, mint them as NFTs and promote them on social media.

The first topic of the proposed four-part series is “The Art of Gender & Sexuality”, with October 1 the closing date for submissions. In the month following, winning artists will have their work showcased at the NFT.NYC conference to be held in Times Square, New York City.

Playboy Has Form in the Crypto Space

In previous flirtations with the NFT space, Playboy collaborated with digital artist Slimesunday on May’s “Liquid Summer” collection featuring archival photographs of Playboy model Lena Forsen, the so-called “First Lady of the Internet”. Last month, the multimedia brand posted articles teaching artists how to mint NFTs, using the example of its initial foray into collecting NFTs via 2020’s Beeple Bull Run series.

Image from the Beeple Bull Run series, some of which Playboy collected.

The leisure and lifestyle magazine’s crypto journey actually began in 2018 when Playboy TV started accepting payments in bitcoin.

For Liz Suman, its vice-president of art curation and editorial, Playboy’s interest in crypto and NFTs is “a natural fit” for a magazine with a near 70-year history of resisting censorship and championing free speech.

We’ve always been a place that champions art in sometimes controversial ways and see NFTs as the frontier of creative expression going forward … As a female curator working in the digital art space, I’m most excited about the opportunity to build on that legacy by working with more female artists and diverse voices.

Liz Sulman, VP, art curation and editorial, Playboy

Sevens and Playboy Chase ‘the Global Promise’ of Blockchain

For its part, Sevens Foundation developer Tim Kang says the non-profit organisation is selective in who it works with to ensure niche social issues and minorities are represented in “the global promise” of blockchain.

We seek out partners and relationships who represent and align with our goals. It’s important for us to elevate women and LGBTQ+ voices to achieve healthy equality and understanding, so we’re excited to work with Playboy to highlight artists in the community who value cultural progress and integrity through creative expression and digital works. 

Tim Kang, Sevens Foundation developer

Neither Sevens nor Playboy will derive any profit from the exercise, and both entities will showcase the chosen artists’ work across their collective social media channels and digital platforms, with a combined reach of more than 25 million followers.

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Crypto Art Ethereum NFTs

NFTs Still Booming as Ethereum-Based CryptoPunks Project Hits $1 Billion in Sales

CryptoPunks has become the second collectible NFT project in a month to surge past US$1 billion in sales after Axie Infinity hit the mark on August 8, though OpenSea remains the undisputed market leader with sales of US$3.53 billion.

With the cheapest CryptoPunk now selling for US$445,000, prices are still climbing – as recently as August 28, the floor price for a single CryptoPunk was a comparatively modest US$345,000.

“Covid Alien”, aka CryptoPunk 7523, which sold for $11.8 million. Source: cnn.com

However, neither mark remotely compares to the world record price paid at auction for a single CryptoPunk in June: an astonishing US$11,754,000 for “Covid Alien”, aka CryptoPunk 7523, one of just nine “alien punks” in a series.

A Cool $15M For a Pair of Alien Punks

There are a total of 10,000 CryptoPunks, with no two exactly alike. When launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, original CryptoPunks were made available for free but several have since changed hands for millions of dollars. Two other “alien punks” sold for more than US$7.5 million each, according to CryptoSlam, and seven more have gone for over a million each. In May, a collection of nine CryptoPunks sold for almost US$17 million at Christie’s.

Trading surged to new heights in late July, pushing CryptoPunks’ daily volume up from US$1.8 million to US$41.5 million within a week. Things got even hotter in August. A week ago, CryptoPunks hit a daily sales record of US$101 million when VISA bought one of the Punks, and the project’s total trading volume has increased by 716 percent in the seven days since.

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Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

$100 Million ‘Feisty Doge’ Briefly Becomes Most Valuable NFT Token Ever

The ‘Feisty Doge’ non-fungible token (NFT) was briefly the most valuable NFT ever, valued at over US$100 million. The owner of the NFT allowed the public to buy part ownership of the digital art piece, pushing the price to record heights.

The Nine-Figure NFT

The Feisty Dog NFT recently became, but is also no longer, the world’s highest valued NFT. How does this happen, one might ask. The owner of the NFT announced it would be fractionalised, allowing the public to buy a share of the 100 billion tokens made available.

By fractionalising NFTs, an interested party can gain exposure without the large upfront cost. As the news spread that there was a possibility to buy into the acclaimed NFT, investors jumped in. The price of the fractionalised asset shot up 721 percent, pushing the estimated value to over US$100 million.

The tokens trading under the ticker NFD can be bought and sold on SushiSwap or Uniswap like any other token. Users with just a few dollars can buy a piece of this NFT (in the form of an ERC-20 token), with hopes that the implied value will rise with time, or that someone will make a fixed price offer for the entire NFT and pay out all the holders in ETH.

NFD Token Price Chart

Based on the total NFD token supply sitting at 100 billion, the token’s price briefly gave the NFT a valuation of US$110 million, making it the most valuable NFT ever, overtaking Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” that sold for US$69 million.

The Feisty Doge picture is part of a shoot with the Japanese Shiba Inu Kabosu, which rose to internet fame as the actual dog behind the Doge meme. It was sold as an NFT back in June, fetching a total of US$43,279. With its price cooling down, the NFT is now hovering around US$50 million.

Feisty Doge NFT – Fractional

While those who bought in early enjoy their gains, some have been critical of @Cryptopathic’s project. Twitter user @0xShual called the Feisty Doge fractions a “scam”, highlighting on-chain data that shows @Cryptopathic removing liquidity from NFD/ETH trading pairs, taking profits in the process. 

While removing liquidity is not technically a scam, doing so has previously drawn the wrath of the crypto community. Also, the opportunity for a rug pull becomes apparent when 90% of tokens are held in just two wallets.

Fractionalised NFTs the Next Big Thing?

Unlike many tokens, there’s no underlying protocol, team, mission or revenue-producing product when it comes to most fractionalised NFTs. People who buy are purely speculating on what the cultural value of the underlying image will be down the line.

NFTs are one of the more recent innovations in blockchain technology with power to change the arts and culture landscape. But since the technology is in its infancy, there are lessons to be learnt and new methods of utilising the technology to be understood.

In a related story, a new Aussie NFT project suffered from errors on launch and will reimburse affected users.